Keith D Renshaw

Keith D Renshaw

Chair

Associate Professor

Clinical Psychology: Anxiety, stress/trauma reactions, and interpersonal relationships, with a particular focus on romantic relationships in which one partner has experienced a traumatic event.

Keith Renshaw received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003. He specializes in anxiety, stress/trauma, and interpersonal relationships, with a particular focus on romantic relationships in which one individual has experienced a trauma. He was an adjunct faculty member at University of North Carolina for 2 years and an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah from 2005-2009, before joining the faculty at George Mason University in the fall of 2009.

Dr. Renshaw has given several conference presentations and invited talks, and authored several journal articles and book chapters on anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and interpersonal relationships. Recently, his focus has been on the experiences of service members who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and their spouses/partners.

Dr. Renshaw’s clinical expertise is in cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders and cognitive-behavioral couples’ therapy. He has performed clinical work in a variety of settings, including outpatient clinics, inpatient hospitals, schools, and VA Medical Centers. He has also supervised numerous graduate students in the delivery of cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety, depression, and couples’ problems.

Dr. Renshaw is also an active member of George Mason's Faculty Senate. He currently serves as Chair of the Faculty Senate, and in this role, he serves as the Faculty Representative to the Board of Visitors. Previously, he was the co-chair of the Faculty Matters Committee and a member of the Senate Executive Committee from Spring 2015 through Spring 2016, and a faculty representative to the Development Committee of the Board of Visitors from Summer 2015 through Summer 2016. In these roles, he strives to strongly represent the voice and needs of the faculty to others both within and external to George Mason.

Current Research

Dr. Renshaw’s research focuses on reactions to trauma and the interpersonal context of stress/trauma reactions, anxiety, and mood. The bulk of his current research is devoted to understanding individuals’ and couples’ reactions to deployment in general, and to symptoms of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in particular, in military couples.

Dr. Renshaw is currently concluding a DoD-funded, longitudinal study of more than 250 military couples over 2 years, in collaboration with colleagues in Colorado. Data from this study will be used to inform potential interventions with family members of service members who are suffering from combat-related PTSD or other conditions.

In addition, two recently completed studies were run by his doctoral students: (1) an NIMH-funded study (PI: Sarah Campbell) of over 60 military/veteran couples who provided data on symptoms and relationship processes every night for 2 weeks, and (2) an NIMH-funded study (PI: Hilary Weingarden) of shame and distress in approximately 100 individuals with body dysmorphic disorder, 100 individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder, and 100 healthy controls.

Dr. Renshaw also continues to study the broader aspects of the interpersonal context of anxiety, with a specific emphasis on understanding positive and negative forms of criticism. His lab recently completed an intensive study of 65 community couples to examine both hostile and non-hostile forms of criticism in couples’ interactions. This study involved self-report questionnaires, as well as videotaped interactions during a laboratory visit.

Three new studies that are underway in his lab (each run by a doctoral student) include: (1) an NIMH-funded study of daily relationship processes and suicidality in 50 Army couples, in which soldiers are at high risk for suicide, (2) a study of interpersonal and psychological functioning in sexual assault survivors, as compared with combat veterans, and (3) an experimental study of the effects of various cognitive tasks immediately following a stressful event in undergraduate students.

Finally, Dr. Renshaw is also exploring new collaborations with the Northern Virginia region's Level 1 Trauma Center at Inova Fairfax, to better understand how people and their families respond to potentially traumatic events.

Courses Taught

Education

Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2003M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1998B.S., Duke University 1995

Recent Presentations

* denotes student under my supervision

*Campbell, S. B., & Renshaw, K. D. (2015, November). Daily associations of PTSD and partner accommodation in military couples. In S. J. Fredman (Chair), Partner accommodation of PTSD symptoms in military and veteran couples. Symposium presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Chicago, IL.

*Carter, S. P., Renshaw, K. D., & Allen, E. S. (2015, November). Concurrent and prospective associations of support from romantic partner with interpersonal suicide risk factors in service members. In S. P. Carter* (Chair), Mechanisms of suicide risk in the context of military service members and veterans. Symposium presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Chicago, IL.

*DiMauro, J., Renshaw, K. D., & Allen, E. S. (2015, November). Associations of PTSD and discrepancies between partner reports of support provided and soldier reports of support received. In J. DiMauro* & K. D. Renshaw (Chairs), Social support and PTSD: Empirically-based extensions of current knowledge. Symposium presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Chicago, IL.